Reader in Sociology and Social Philosophy Paul Reynolds recently led a one day symposia entitled ‘Adam Smith: Lessons for the Left’, held at the University of Brighton and organised in conjunction with its Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics.
The seminar had a strong panel, including David Casassas (University of Barcelona) who gave the first English language presentation of his highly regarded book (in Spanish) The City in Flames, outlining his republican reading of Smith’s work. Donald Winch, a leading critic of Conservative readings of Smith as the supposed architect of free market neo-liberalism, gave a reflective paper on over 30 years of Smith scholarship.
Paul’s own paper builds and develops on the work of Winch and others. In ‘Virtue, Culture and Science in Enlightenment Thinking: The Case of Adam Smith’”, Paul proposed that Smith needs to be seen as a moral philosopher who focused not just on the scientific analysis of social change but the moral problems it created.
‘For Smith, the Greek notion of virtue and a commitment to civic humanism are identified as essential concerns if the then newly developing capitalist economy was to constitute a morally progressive society, argues Paul.
‘And there are important lessons for us today. Over 30 years after the neo-liberal reading of Smith was debunked by the scholarship of people like Donald Winch, it is a feature of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of contemporary politicians – Conservative and Labour – that their ignorance tarnishes a thinker who deserves more respect. While I think there were limits to Smith’s measured hope that the emergent bourgeois classes would produce a flourishing moral culture without a more strident commitment to political intervention, Smith was a considerable intellect and still has much for us to learn from.’